Day 16 - Down but not out! (And Gulnaz Backbends)

Oh dear! my back has not been good today and ended up sitting out of Gulnaz's class and observing instead. On the plus side, this means I have reliable notes. It was an extremely rapid fire class, with lots of repetition of poses and lots of (very necessary) rests too. The holds were very short, up in one breath and down on the next in a lot of cases. The group was rewarded with a restful end to the class of Chair Sarvangasana rolling into Halasana and everyone seemed very happy when they left. I was of course as sick as a parrot to miss out, but we have to accept what we are given and my back definitely wanted to rest this evening. Right at the end of class, while the others were going for Chair Sarvangasana I went for Setubandha supported with bolster, feet level and Baddha Konasana in Setubandha - it felt blissful to open my chest and extend my spine and when I came down at the end my back felt better than it had all day.

Day 16 – Gulnaz Backbends

• AMVirsasana – AMSvanasana – Uttanasana X 2

• AMSvanasana – UMSvanasana x 2

• Take 2 bricks and repeat AMSvanasana – UMSvanasana to expose the armpits and lift the side trunk up x 3

• AMS – UMS – Charurangasana (not to be confused with Chaturanga Dandasana – Chaturangasana is simply kneeling on all 4’s) X 3

• Eka Pada Chaturangasana – Extending alternate legs in line with the hip, front face of the leg facing the floor like Vira 3, kneecap tight, leg extending from frontal thigh x 4 each side.

• Eka Pada Chaturangasana this time extending opposite arm and leg. ‘Each part has to get equal length’ Eyes looking forwards. Right leg, left hand! Left leg, right hand! Right leg, left hand! Left leg, right hand! In rapid succession.

• Virasana to recover.